See I would argue that Jordan wrote some really cool women and men and made all the men into wussies to be controlled by the women. You know like real life.

That was Jordan taking the common sword and sorcery trope of women being second class citizens and turning it around.
The trick of the thing being, the world is basically a matriarchy. The pinnacle of power is the Aes Sedai, which since the breaking consisted of all women. For countless generations, the males at some level know that the most powerful people in the world are women.
For those of you who became frustrated around books 8-10, things have picked up. Jordanís last novel, The Path of Daggers started tying up loose ends and the last two novels, written by Brandon Sanderson, took care of even more. Jordan had lined up most of his ducks before he got sick. Everything is falling into place. Cool stuff is happening now. I urge you to give it another shot. Check out the link in Chopper Dukeís first post if you want summaries of all the books, so you donít have to reread the whole series.

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Pushing up the ante, I know you've got to see me,
Read 'em and weep, the dead man's hand again . . .

I'm very excited about the last book, which is coming out pretty soon iirc. I rather enjoyed the entire series (even the boring middle), but the last few books are on a whole other level. Sanderson is an amazing writer.

__________________"Lulzwut ain't no country I ever heard of! They type English in Lulzwut?"
"lulzwut?""English, mother ******! Can you type it?"

I actually haven't been as impressed by Brandon Sanderson as others here. I hadn't read anything of his prior to when he took over WoT, but his character depictions feel different than Jordan's. Part of this is likely related to the way that the characters themselves are changing as the series starts to wrap up, but I'm inclined to attribute some of it to the way he writes. It isn't as though his writing is bad, but it definitely feels like someone else is writing.

I never experienced the drop off that some of you did in the middle of the series, and the rich details and development of seemingly minor characters help give an immersive feel to the writing. I am excited to see it conclude, though it's a shame it has to end.

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"Arrogance on the part of the meritorious is even more offensive to us than the arrogance of those without merit: for merit itself is offensive."
-Friedrch Nietzsche

the middle of the series was hard for me to read, it just seemed like it took forever for some of the things to happen, i must say i do think the last 3 books are a bit different from Jordan's works but i really like Brandon's writing style and i also just want to see how this one plays it self out. I hope it isnt a crappy ending like the Sword of Truth series had. it seemed like such a let down.

I haven't picked up the last books, One of these days I'll finish out the series, I've read books 1-5 many times, but I burned out around #8 and dragged myself through to 11 and I think thats where I stopped. The first few books were great, but at some point it just got old. Too be honest, I think he just tried to do too much within too narrow a scope. It felt like an entire world was happening, and I was trying to follow it all while the central theme got lost. The other problem was the same problem I have with another famous fantasy series, in that its just simply too long. It could have been chopped in half and had more impact.

I have to say though, I loved the world building. While I know we were only seeing a corner of it, it actually felt like a world with a history and depth. I also liked that most of the characters, even some of the nightmares of the world, you could understand and even sympathize with. They felt like people and not just plot points with bullseyes.

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